The Opposition Congress on Wednesday expressed deep concern over large scale vacancies in teacher posts and said the standard of education has declined due to continued negligence by the State Government.
Raising the issue in an Adjournment Motion in the State Assembly, Congress members said the School and Mass Education Department (SME) has turned to be a non-performing department.
“The standard of education in primary and secondary level has been very disappointing. Most of the schools are facing problems like lack of buildings, teachers and electricity connectivity,” Naba Das of Congress said while participating in the discussion.
He said the quality of education has so downgraded that 60 per cent of Class VI students and 70 per cent of Class V students are unable to read their books. He said the department would have been closed if the Centre had not given its 65 per cent share.
Other Congress members like Dr Prafulla Majhi and Subal Sahu accused the State Government of adopting a divide-and-rule policy among teachers by defining them in various names as Gana Sikshaks, Sikshya Sahayaks and so on. They demanded that ‘equal pay for equal work’ be adopted for teachers and all vacant posts be filled up soon.
Many ruling party members including Pratap Jena, Prafulla Samal, Sanjib Sahu and Balabhadra Majhi, however, refuted charges of the Opposition members.
In his reply, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra informed that 1,89,569 teachers are now serving against a requirement of 2,24,330 teachers in primary schools as per the Right to Education Act. The State Government has already issued a notification for recruitment of 16,601 teachers and the process is on.
The Minister said the primary schools have teachers in the ratio of 25.67:1 and the upper primary have teachers in the ratio of 25.17:1. Besides, a total of 3,288 teachers have been appointed as part time art, song and athletic teachers in the upper primary schools having more than 100 students.
The accusation that teaching in schools has been affected and future of students has been pushed to darkness is not true, the Minister said. Dissatisfied over the Minister’s answer, the Congress members staged a walkout.